When is an entry not a game?

TerraForma by Hank What's-his-name. Sadly, he never finished it, and dropped game programming altogether. Quite a shame, the guy had talent. But, he's making movies now, so when he gets his Oscar, we can all nod and say, I played his game. ;-)

My fave? Yoink is in a good position here. As was the pirate-squirrel game of last year.

Quote:Hmm I seem to recall you winning once for a game I got tired of and quit in less than 20 clicks.

In this kind of instance, I do not think that would make a valid rule, since it relies on personal taste.

You misunderstood me. I wasn't proposing a rule that if I get quickly tired of an entry then it's not a game! Both the entries I mentioned above were very incomplete; they did not have the interactivity, goals or rewards that define most computer games. They didn't have much gameplay (arguably it was more than 30 seconds, but still.)

I wasn't trying to insult those entries. I gave the world-building game high marks for originality, and for sheer ambitiousness (not a category we vote on) I thought he was off the scale. I was merely pointing out that highly experimental or unfinished games would not pass some of the rules that people are proposing in this thread. I want to make sure that people understand this unintended side effect.

Personally I'd rather have people submit half-finished ideas and feel good about what they accomplished than add rules to discourage them. The last thing we want to do is discourage new developers from entering something.

A no source code category would possibly get you some better entries, but it wouldn't exactly help the other aim of the competition, which is to help teach how to make games.

The 3D dungeon thingy from last year was actually valuable for that even though it wasn't fully finished, assuming the source code was finally made available for it. Having the source code for a simple 3D maze could be handy for a games programmer just starting out.

Very very interesting comments by everyone. I wasn't sure if I would get feedback on this issue -- I was wrong.

>The judges reserve the right to disqualify any entry for whatever reason they see fit
I looked for that in our rules straight away. I could swear we had that! We did in the past. Hmmm..

Well, when I was informed this year that a game, wasn't a game, and then "somewhat" told by its developer that (blush), he was "shooting beyond the stars himself" and "hoping to get some free goodies" (these are my quotes to convey the feeling I got), then I started to think about it.

My thoughts are....

1) Perhaps one man's junk is another man's gold mine. As Aaron pointed out, some may think, "What good was that game that made a pong ball move around the screen?" But to others, they might just find that code mighty useful to learn from.

2) Yes, I would never want to discourage new developers. So, I wouldn't say, "Beat it kid, your game isn't even triple-E level."

3) All people have different views on gameplay. As I said in my first post, defining a game or gameplay are not so easy. I think to do so is a slippery slope.

4) The chances of someone doing something to get free goodies for nothing is low. Tis true. However, as the contest reaches out more, I do think there might be temptation. Even being listed on the entrants list, which will get your site hits could be a temptation for some.

Bottomline is I just want to keep the doors barred to a person thinking to abuse the contest. I'm not looking to get better entries with my thoughts, just "real" effort entries. If the effort is a 1/2 finished game, then so be it. But if the effort is simply 1 screen, with only a credits and quit button working, then I am worried. (Some might argue even that might be usefull )

OT: About Hank/Muff. He seemed like a nice enough fellow. But he left this community IMHO for lack of clear motivation. This was a problem before uDevGames. If I recall, he couldn't settle down on a project. One such project, an RPG which I was providing him graphics for was "abandoned" and brushed aside. I should also mention that shipping him prizes last year was a major "pain." Those in the loop will know well of what I say. I hate to go OT, and normally, I do shed a tear when someone leaves us -- even someone like AJInfinity, but I'm not so sure in this case.

Anyhow, we can leave the contest as it is this year. Hopefully by Spring, we can come to a conclusion on this and other stuff.

Ok, then an edulcorated version of aaron's (or is it adam, I never remember...) solution is the way to go, something such as "iDevgames reserves the right to disqualify an entry if it does not posess the essential requirements of a game, or if the code is anyhow malicious. Idevgames is the only judge of this bla bla bla